Thoughts on "Age of Ash" by Daniel Abraham

After having read "The Dagger and the Coin" series by Daniel Abraham, I was intrigued enough to seek out his new series: "The Kithmar Trilogy".

The price for even the ebook on Amazon seemed a bit nuts, but I found a hardback copy that wasn't too expensive. And I took my time to read it.

"Age of Ash" is set in the wealthy city of Kithmar, a major power in the world. The story centers around two young women who are part of a minority group in a destitute neighborhood of Kithmar. The duo, Alys and Sammish, are thieves, among other professions. THey do what needs doing to get coin for food and shelter.

When Alys's brother is murdered, Alys is determined to find out who killed him and why. Her investigations take her on a journey into secret societies of Kithmar, with strange magics, and some demented shit going on with the city's ruler. Sammish, for her part, is in it to help out Alys, with whom she has an unrequited (and, apparently unknown) crush.

The two women find themselves mixing things up with the weird magics and learn some dangerous secrets, changing their lives.

Overall, I have to say I enjoyed the book. It had a kind of plodding pace that was irritating at times, but Abraham goes for the slow-paced stories, and I know that from "The Coin and the Dagger". The characters were interesting, though they all got on my nerves more than once. The antagonist (villain? I'm not sure) is seriously fucked up. Abraham gets kudos for the wrongness of that.

I'm honestly not sure where the next book will go. I'm hoping the pacing is a bit faster in subsequent novels. And I'd frankly love a better payoff than "The Coin and the Dagger" gave, but I'll take what I can get.

I guess I'll keep an eye out for book two, whenever that is.

It's three months 'till Xmas

Yup. Three months. Xmas cards and decorations have been available in some stores since August. In one case, I saw a store carrying some in July.

Truly the world has gone mad.

Happy Autumnal Equinox

So begins the Fall.

Muahahahahaha!

Thoughts on "The Dagger and the Coin" series by Daniel Abrams

I finished book five of "The Dagger and the Coin", a fantasy series written by Daniel Abraham. Yes, the Daniel Abraham who is one of the two writers who make up the pseudonym of James S.A. Corey, who wrote "The Expanse" series.

With "The Expanse" done, I was hungry for a series. All my favorite authors are... not cranking the stuff out... and Abraham was recommended to me.

I got "The Dragon's Path", book one of his "The Dagger and the Coin" series and quite enjoyed it. I think I was a third of the way in when I got the other four books: "The King's Blood", "The Tyrant's Law", "The Widow's House", and "The Spider's War".

The series is written in a style similar to "The Expanse" or the "Song of Ice and Fire" books (remember those?). Each chapter is told from the point-of-view of a character.

The main characters are:

• Cithrin bel Sarcour, an orphan half-breed child raised by the great bank. Turns out she's got a genius for banking and a wild, impulsive, inclination for risks.
• Marcus Wester, a bleak-mannered and aging mercenary captain whose wife and daughter were burned alive before him. He's killed kings and doesn't have a lot of patience for shit.
• Geder Pallinko, a somewhat-nerdy nobleman who is thrust into power. A shame he's also a bit of a sociopath, a tyrant, and a mass-murderer.
• Kit, a master actor with quite the secret in his past.
• Clara Kalliam, the wife of Baron Dawson Kalliam and a woman who goes through all kinds of hell to save her family and her homeland.

All told, I found the series to be a fun read. Abraham created a fascinating world. Once ruled by dragons, the human race were bred as slaves. Multiple ofshoot races were bred for specific purposes and after the dragons fell, the various races of humanity inherited the world and get along about as well as you'd expect. I like the protagonists of the series. They're engaging, flawed, but not so much so that I didn't want to read about what they were going through. While I personally loathed Geder Pallinko, his character arc was fascinating. Abraham did a marvelous job of showing how we're all heroes in our personal narratives. Especially delusional sociopaths.

The politics were well-written and while the racial stuff got a bit heavy-handed at times, it rang quite true. Disturbingly-so given the times we're in.

There were a few cons. I thought some of the "war is hell" narratives dragged on a bit too long. I could have done without the dragons. I find it odd to say that for a fantasy series, but the whole dragon thing felt a bit shoehorned in and didn't really flow well with the plot, to my mind. And that's kind of funny given the dragons are kind of central, though in a removed way. The series does conclude, but the conclusion feels rushed, a bit overly-contrived, and oddly-abrupt. Lots of threads were left hanging, making me wonder if he's planning a sequel series.

If he writes it, I'll read it.

Rebranding

I love how fanny packs have been rebranded as "sling bags".

En-compass-ing thoughts

If you could only hear the laugh track I hear!

Anyway, I saw a post on another blog I enjoy and realized that I, too, had backed the referenced Kickstarter. And that made me think of yet another fancy compass I've obtained. So, without further ado, let me speak of compasses. Compassi? What is the plural for compass? Meh, I don't care. Moving on...

The Sailor's Compass by Oceanus Brass

I keep saying I'm going to quit Kickstarter and I never do. Oceanus Brass is one of those Kickstarter creators that make it difficult, if not impossible, for me to ever truly quit. They do nautical-themed things. Doodads. Brass utility knives and sailing gear. They came out with a Kickstarter for their Sailor's Compass and the next thing I knew, I was backing it. Despite the pandemic madness, they sent out the compass pretty quickly. It's a neat little thing. I mean, it's a compass, so it's not like it fires lasers or cuts boxes, but it's a simple, beautiful, functional tool It looks a bit like the sort of ladies' compact my grandmother used to carry about. It's about two inches in diameter and has a glow insert for use in poor or no lighting. I keep it in my "Go Bag", mostly because I think it's too gorgeous to just sit on a shelf and collect dust.

Heirloom Dual Sapphire Titanium Compass

On the topic of gorgeous things, at some point not long after I got the Oceanus Brass compass, I was perusing CountyComm's website, as I am wont to do, and lo, among the new items, was the Heirloom Dual Sapphire Titanium Compass. I couldn't tell you why I succumbed, exactly. It could have been "retail therapy" due to isolation and madness from the COVID Pandemic. It could have been because this compass is just so damn gorgeous. It could have been both. Oh, I bet it was probably both. Anyway, I got one. This compass is about half the size of the Sailor's Compass. It looks mainly like a sort of fob one might have when wearing an old-fashioned waistcoat or vest. It looks a little like a small pocketwatch, to be honest. And I love those, so that might have been part of the appeal. Like the Sailor's Compass, the Heirloom Compass is a functional thing that's also beautiful. The north indicator on the needle glows in the dark, should one need to know north without lights, and it comes (came?) with a little leather sleeve to hold it. I have to admit that every now and again, I'll carry this compass around, even though I don't need one in an urban area. It's just a fun little bauble to carry around.

I suppose I'm good to find north, provided I'm away from strong magnets and the like. And, if anything, I've got some lovely things to talk about.

Stranger Things - the best 80s nostalgia

I just finished watching season 4 of "Stranger Things" and it left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling of weird nostalgia for the 80s (a decade I didn't especially enjoy when I lived through it).

I gather that Season 5 will conclude the series, though spin-offs are apparently still on the table. I hope that one of those spin-offs have Dustin and Steve off doing side adventures, 'cause those two are hilariously-awesome. I'd also take good time to watch the adventures of Max and Eleven doing whatever those two feel like doing. They should bring in Erika Sinclair in for maximum awesome, though.

All told, I have a number of hopes for season five of the show:

• More Max being awesome. I've decided that Sadie Sink's portrayal of Max Mayfield has made her my favorite character.
• More Steve and Dustin. For the most part, I'm inclined to think the male characters of "Stranger Things" get the short end of the stick in terms of meaty roles, but Joe Keery and Gaten Matarazzo have been given a gift from the writers with Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson.
• Give Maya Hawke's Robin Buckley a happy ending. Her character rocks. It's the 80s and not a good time for a girl to come out of the closet, so indulge in fantasy and give her a happy time, eh?
• I'm rooting for Caleb McLaughlin's Lucas Sinclair and Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield, but for the love of Cthulhu, I wish the writers woudl give McLaughlin more to do.
• On the topic of characters who need more to do... good lord. Finn Wolfhard's Mike Wheeler, Noah Schnapp's Will Byers, and Charlie Heaton's Jonathan Byers were nothing more than pointless oxygen consuption and wasted screen time in the last two seasons. I really hope the writers can come up with something for these characters to do that's useful. It was painful to watch Will Byers do his pining over Mike and it did little to move the plot forward. Jonathan Byers did exactly nothing of use in the season other than be a sort of love-interest for Natalia Dyer's Nancy Wheeler (who is SO FAR out of his league it's painful). And, while I feel bad for Finn Wolfhard. The character of Mike Wheeler has been sidelined to the point of being... uh... pointless for the last two seasons. The writers really need to think of something for the character to do other than be "heart".

I feel sad for the Hawkins, Indiana tourist board.